AICTE-INAE Travel Grant Scheme for Engineering Students

What is the AICTE-INAE Travel Grant Scheme?

The AICTE-INAE Travel Grant Scheme for Engineering Students is jointly run by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) under the Ministry of Education. According to INAE, the scheme provides partial travel assistance and registration support to engineering students so they can present their research papers at international scientific events abroad: conferences, seminars, symposiums, workshops and exhibitions.

The scheme reimburses eligible costs up to a maximum of Rs 1,00,000 per student. It is a reimbursement scheme tied to a specific accepted paper, not a general scholarship, and support is released after the student has been formally accepted to present.

Main features

• Up to Rs 1 lakh reimbursement per student.
• 100 percent of registration fees, visa fees and travel insurance (insurance capped at Rs 5,000).
• 50 percent of actual or discounted airfare, plus AC II-class train fare to the nearest Indian airport and local transport at the venue.
• Applications accepted year-round but at least eight weeks before the event.

Who is eligible for the AICTE-INAE Travel Grant?

You can apply if you are:

• A pre-final or final year student of B.E./B.Tech. or integrated M.Tech., or
• A first or second year student of M.E./M.Tech., at an AICTE-approved engineering institution, and
• You have an official Letter of Acceptance to present a research paper at an international event abroad.

Students pursuing MS by research, M.Sc. in engineering, or a dual-degree / any degree of at least four years of engineering study must additionally have secured a minimum of 7 CGPA or 65 percent and above.

You cannot apply if:

• Your institution is not AICTE-approved.
• You do not have an accepted paper and acceptance letter: attending as a non-presenting delegate does not qualify.
• You fall below the 7 CGPA / 65 percent threshold where it applies.
• You are a first-year undergraduate or otherwise outside the eligible year bands.

The grant is strictly for presenting authors travelling to an international event; it is not a fund for conference attendance in general.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the AICTE-INAE Travel Grant

1. Secure an official Letter of Acceptance to present your paper at an international scientific event abroad.
2. Go to the INAE portal at inae.in and open the AICTE-INAE Travel Grant Scheme application at least eight weeks before the event date.
3. Fill the form and upload the acceptance letter, the accepted paper, your academic marksheets and a cost estimate covering registration, visa, insurance and airfare.
4. Provide your institution's bonafide certificate confirming your eligible year and AICTE approval.
5. Submit the application and share your bank account details so the sanctioned amount can be reimbursed after approval.

Because applications are processed year-round but must arrive at least eight weeks ahead, apply immediately once the acceptance letter is received.

How much does the scheme reimburse?

Within the Rs 1 lakh cap, the scheme reimburses 100 percent of registration fees, visa fees and travel insurance (insurance up to Rs 5,000), and 50 percent of the actual or discounted airfare. It also covers AC II-class train fare from the institution to the nearest airport and back within India, and local transport from the airport to the venue. Because airfare is only half-reimbursed, students should expect to meet part of the flight cost themselves.

Help and where to check status

The scheme does not publish a dedicated telephone helpline. Applicants should use the contact details and notices on the INAE website (inae.in) and, where relevant, the AICTE portal. Status of a submitted application is tracked through the INAE portal account used to apply. Institutional faculty coordinators can also help route AICTE-INAE travel grant queries.

Common reasons for rejection

No acceptance letter, or a conditional one. The single non-negotiable requirement is an official Letter of Acceptance to present a paper at the international event. Applications backed by a submission receipt, a "under review" note, or an invitation to attend without presenting are turned down. The fix: apply only after the organiser confirms your paper is accepted for presentation, and attach that letter, not the submission acknowledgement.

Applying too close to the event date. INAE requires the application at least eight weeks before the event. A student who receives an acceptance letter six or four weeks out and applies immediately still misses the window, because the eight-week clock runs from the event date, not from the acceptance date. There is no fast-track for late cases; the practical fix is to build travel-grant paperwork into the conference timeline the day the acceptance letter arrives, and if the gap is already under eight weeks, to fund the trip independently and not expect reimbursement.

Institution not AICTE-approved. Students from institutions outside the AICTE approval list are ineligible regardless of paper quality or acceptance status. Check your institution's AICTE approval status before investing time in the application; a bonafide certificate from a non-approved institute will not pass this check.

Wrong academic year or degree category. The scheme is limited to pre-final/final year B.E./B.Tech. or integrated M.Tech. students and first/second year M.E./M.Tech. students. A first-year undergraduate, or a student in a year band outside these, gets rejected on eligibility even with a strong accepted paper. Students in MS by research, M.Sc. engineering, or a four-year-plus dual degree face an additional check: below 7 CGPA or 65 percent, the application does not qualify, so confirm your CGPA/percentage against this threshold before applying.

Attending but not presenting. Co-authors or delegates who will attend the event without personally presenting the paper are not covered; the grant is for the presenting author only. If authorship and presentation duties are split among a team, only the member actually delivering the presentation should apply.

Incomplete or mismatched cost estimate. A cost estimate that omits the registration/visa/insurance/airfare break-up, or does not match the figures on the acceptance letter and travel booking, delays or derails approval since the reimbursement is calculated against this estimate. Submit an itemised estimate that lines up with the documents supporting it, including the marksheets proving the CGPA/percentage where that criterion applies.

Missing or mismatched enrolment proof. The bonafide/enrolment certificate must confirm both the eligible year and the institution's AICTE-approved status at the time of application. A certificate that is outdated, unsigned, or does not clearly state the year of study is a common cause of the file being sent back for resubmission, costing time that cannot be recovered once the eight-week window has passed.